The Autumn Statement will show us this Labour Party's true colours too

There ts a hairshirt tendency within Labour that likes tax and thinks that it signals the way to an equal society

- Philip Collins

THE question which is torturing Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt will soon confront the Labour Party. In the Autumn Statement on Thursday the Chancellor will reveal his decisions on taxation. Even allowing for the fact that spending cuts are coming, the burden of taxation will have to fall somewhere. The Labour response will tell us something too about how they would act.

In the prelude to Thursday, Hunt has floated some unlikely options. There have been rumours that capital gains tax will be applied to the primary domestic residence and whispers of a large increase in inheritance tax.

There is a logical case for either. The housing market locks out most people under the age of 30 and there is no good reason to treat property as a separate asset class, exempt from the taxation of the rest. House-price inflation is not a reward for clever entrepreneurial activity, it is a happy accident for the fortunate.

Likewise, my children have done nothing to merit the inheritance they receive beyond the dubious distinction of being born to me.